Breen and Nielsen stared at him. The trio passed out into the street.

“Where shall we go?” Breen questioned.

“Let’s bum a while in my room,” Nielsen proposed.

“I can’t,” Carstairs declined.

“Why not, John?”

“I want to work a little,” Carstairs explained.

Breen and Nielsen stared at him again.

Somewhat later, the painter and the writer were comfortably seated in the latter’s comfortable workshop.

“I guess so, but I hope it isn’t true,” Nielsen was saying.

“Oh, he’ll get over it. These attachments of his are never serious nor of long duration. And at best, she’s only a hardened little thing, a fact he’ll realize in good season.”